[RockCrusher]

Bought a number of cars -- roughly over 20 -- and have paid via cashier's check or even personal check sometimes accompanied by a fully paid off trade in. In one case I traded in a car -- my 2018 Hellcat -- and got a new 2020 Scat Pack and a check from the dealer for the excess value of the Hellcat. Nice to walk, errr make that drive away from a dealer in a new car with some extra money one's my pocket.

Anyhow paying by check has never been a problem. Oh, several times, including my last purchase, a 2024 M8, I did finance $20,000. For the M8 I did so to qualify for a $9000 credit rebate. Had to make 3 payments which meant I paid around $180 interest but I'll spend $180 to save $9000!

A few times buying a new car I was asked to fill out car loan application which I understood would be used, could be used, if there was a problem with the check.

I bought 3 Porsche cars and so far 4 BMWs and neither the Porsche dealers or BMW dealers required this.

Oh, one dealer -- could have been a Dodge dealer (I bought a 2018 Scat Pack Dec. 2017, then a 2018 Hellcat Feb. 2018, then a 2020 Scat Pack Nov 2020) -- submitted a loan application (maybe by accident) which I had not provided income or stuff like that. (It could have been the dealer just wanted to see if I would sign the application as a truth test that my check would be good.)

Some days after the purchase I got a letter notifying me the application was denied. Kind of made me mad this happened as I feared it might affect my credit score. But I never noticed any impact to my credit score.

As an aside with another car purchase -- my 2023 M2 -- some months after the purchase I was notified of a security breach at the dealer. My personal info and my checking account info had been exposed. (Along with I'm sure other people who did business with that dealer.) As as I could after getting the letter I closed my checking account and opened a new one and moved all but $2000 out of the old account only moving the $2000 out after I was sure an automatic payment was coming from the new account.)

Added: Forgot to mention that only bit of an issue I ran into buying -- most recently -- a MINI S, a MINI JCW, and the M2 out of state was at first the dealer wanted to collect sales tax. I balked at this. The dealers insisted they were required by the factory (MINI/BMW). From my discussion with the tax office in my state I balked at handing over thousands of dollars to these states which I was informed he no agreement to hand over sales tax collected. So I put my foot down dug in my heels and said paying sales tax was a deal killer.

With other car purchases here even the local dealer didn't collect sales tax. Sales tax is paid when one goes to assess the car, and pay any property tax that might be due, and then pay sales tax *before* one advances to the window where one registers the car and surrenders the factory title for a state issued title -- which is mailed.

It was only after I said the sales tax business was a deal killer I was told this is only required if the car is being financed. In all of these purchases it was *not* financed. So I bought the cars with no sales tax collected. But course sales tax was paid just a few days after I got home with the new car.